Chateauneuf en Auxois turned out to be one of the most photogenic places! It didn’t hurt that it was overcast- we were a little bit chilled, but it was fairly glorious to photograph all of the colors of doors and flowers and trees under the cloudy sky. We visited the fortification first, strolled through the town to the church, then strolled through again before the sun peeked out and we were able to enjoy another picnic lunch outside before making our way to Saint-Victor-sur-Ouche, where Antoine used to visit his grandparents! We watched a river cruise boat pull into a lock, walked down the lane, and even waded in the shallow river long enough to cool off, but not get too cold from the mountain spring water. Again, the day was wonderful!

I felt a little restricted not having a wider lens, so there were many times that I would curse the lens that I had, and back up as far as I could to take a shot. But the weather was working in my favor. We were chilled, but the grey sky made the colors really pop for these photos of Chateauneuf en Auxois and the little village surrounding it.

Inside Chateauneuf en Auxois, I was most impressed with the patterns of the wallpaper, or on the fireplace cover, or even the bedding in some of the rooms. The photos I took of the rooms themselves were too cropped, and quite simply didn’t do the rooms justice, so we’ll just stick with sharing the beautiful colors and patters found inside instead. I got a few (slightly cropped still) shots of the outside that do give the courtyard a bit of justice. How beautiful is this rose covered wall?

Perhaps you can hear me whispering excitedly to Andrew about the ‘murder holes’ we found overlooking the town below. Have I mentioned before on the blog that Andrew has teased me about installing these in our future home in America?

I’m sure we won’t run into any building code problems whatsoever in New York City if/when we ever request a few of these…

I might have gone off the deep end photographing the town. I just could not get enough of it. The ivy growing on houses, the rock walls, the bright yellow van parked in front of the bright red door… Needless to say, I was always tagging along behind everyone else or running to catch up after taking copious amounts of photos of the same yellow van and red door.

After a lovely picnic lunch, we headed to Saint-Victor-sur-Ouche. This little (and equally adorable) town was right alongside a canal. Cruises go up and down the canal. We had timed it somewhat perfectly to see a little ‘ship’ arrive to the lock and then move up the river. We found out that the cruises last one week, but if you were to drive the same distance, it would only take about two hours or so. When the boat was going through the lock, the passengers got off with bikes to go around and explore. I’m on the fence about cruises in general, so I’m wondering if one of these (very) leisurely canal cruises would be something I would like or not… Maybe I need to try a regular cruise first? Perhaps one (or both) will be part of our next Round-the-World trip?

Realizing we didn’t have very many group shots, I arranged my camera on my backpack, set the self timer, and ran (awkwardly ran) into the water to take a group picture. These are the best ones we managed to get. Afterwards, we (I) had a bit of trouble getting up the sharp slope back to the car. Andrew decided to help, and Julie documented it. (Nice job, Julie!) Later that night in the garden, Julie also documented how well Roule and I got on. She was a little camera shy though, and once she caught on to Julie photographing us, she ran off!